Solidarity Connections

Over the years we have been privileged to collaborate with many organizations committed to creating economies of solidarity and to defending the rights of Maya women and their families living in Chiapas as well as women in artisan collectives living on the U.S. – Mexico border. 

Our past solidarity connections include The NMSU Center for Latin American and Border Studies; SALAS, the NMSU Student Association for Latin American Study; The Newman Center, Las Cruces; The Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces; The Mexico Solidarity Network; Junt@s Vamos, a cancer support group in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua; Mountain View Market Cooperative, Las Cruces; The Southwest Environmental Center, Las Cruces; and several border women’s artisan collectives that came together to create La Frontera, a fair trade store in Nopalitos Galería (2015-2018).

Our ongoing solidarity connections include:

Appalachian State University (Dr. Paul Worley, Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures)

Bentley University Service Learning and Civic Engagement Center (Bria Milbery). Each Fall Weaving for Justice participates in a Fair Trade Festival sponsored by the Center.

Bisbee Fiber Arts Guild, Bisbee, Arizona – The Guild has provided both weaving materials to Chiapas weaving collectives and moral support to Weaving for Justice.https://www.bisbeefiberarts.com/

Border Servant Corps, Las Cruces, New Mexico. BSC offers border immersion experiences on the border to learn about immigration and the borderlands. Weaving for Justice participates in these programs by speaking with groups about how weaving collectives in Chiapas are helping their members stay on their lands and not be forced to migrate. www.borderservantcorps.org/

CAMP (College Migrant Assistance Program), NMSU. Since 2002, the College Assistance Migrant Program has served the post-secondary educational needs of migrant and seasonal farmworkers, dairyworkers, and ranchworkers from across New Mexico and far West Texas. Weaving for Justice was pleased to work with our first camp intern, Jazmin Celis, during the Winter 2023 semester.

Casa Camino Real is a bookstore, art gallery and community resource center that celebrates literature and the arts in the borderland region. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057539585893

Chiapas Photography Project Since 1992, the project has provided indigenous Maya peoples of Chiapas, Mexico, with opportunities for cultural and artistic self-expression through photography. From 2016 – 2017 the project worked with the weavers of Tsobol Antzetik in Chenalho to create three photographic books. To purchase their books, see our online store. (https://chiapasphoto.org/)

Civil Society the Bees (Sociedad Civil Las Abejas) isa Catholic social justice organization founded in 1992 with its headquarters in Acteal, Chenalhó, Chiapas. In addition to supporting this organization in its pursuit of justice for their brethren who were lost in the Acteal massacre, Weaving for Justice sells embroidered cloths by a group of Las Abejas women on which they have embroider words about the struggle for social justice. https://acteal.blogspot.com/

Colgate University (Dr. Rachel Newman, History Department and Francisco Martinez Martinez)

Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum, Las Cruces.  Each June Weaving for Justice participates in the Museum’s Annual Fiber Arts Festival.  https://www.nmfarmandranchmuseum.org/

First Christian Church, Las Cruces.  Since February 2022 Weaving for Justice has been renting a space for our weaving store at First Christian Church. They generously offer us the additional use of their Atrium and kitchen to hold monthly sales and other events.The Church community celebrates diversity and freedom and works for social justice. https://www.fcclc.org/

Jolom Mayaetik is a collective of about 600 Maya weavers in Chiapas. Over the years Weaving for Justice has sold weavings for the collective as well as collaborated on a book about our two organizations. We have also co-sponsored visits to the U.S. of Rosalinda Santis Díaz, one of the organization’s leaders. https://www.facebook.com/cooperativa.jolommayaetik/

Latin American Solidarity Committee (LASC), a Western New York community-based group promoting human rights and social and economic justice in Latin America. Weaving for Justice has been collaborating with this Committee for many years. http://www.lascwny.org/

Maya Educational Foundation (MEF) For the past ten years, Weaving for Justice has been raising funds for scholarships to benefit Maya youth in Belize, Chiapas, and Guatemala by selling Mesoamerican textiles, artifacts, books, and tourist items donated by friends of MEF and Weaving for Justice. To learn more about the scholarship programs MEF administers visit their website at www.mayedufound.org

The Mesilla Valley Film Society is a non-profit organization that presents independent, foreign, and documentary film and video to audiences in Southern New Mexico and West Texas. Over the years Weaving for Justice has held fundraisers and sales corresponding with films at the theatre. https://mesillavalleyfilm.org/

Mexicolore is a small independent teaching team based in London providing specialist educational services on Mexico and teaching resources on the Mexica and Maya (https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/). In collaboration with Weaving for Justice, the Mexicolore team created two pages on their website describing the meaning and history of symbols on the weavings that we sell for collectives in Chiapas. (https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/)

New Mexico State University Museum, Las Cruces. In 1999, The University Museum mounted the first of four exhibits of Maya textiles from Chiapas co-curated by Christine Eber. See this website for information about the most recent exhibit which closed in June 2023 – “When a Woman Rises: Maya Weavers Creating Relationships Through Textiles.”  In addition, for nine years the Museum has generously offered its courtyard and lobby to Weaving for Justice to hold its annual scholarship fundraiser in collaboration with the Maya Educational Foundation on Days of the Dead https://univmuseum.nmsu.edu/

Oaxacan Cultural Navigator and Norma Schaefer. In March 2022 Norma met the weavers of Tsobol Antsetik and in February 2023 led a weaving tour back to meet with the collective. Norma plans to return with another group of weaving enthusiasts in 2024. https://oaxacaculture.com/

Pan American Roundtable was founded in 1916 to help displaced women and their families during the Mexican Revolution. Over the years the Las Cruces Chapter has invited members of Weaving for Justice to speak and has generously donated to our work.

Southwest Women’s Fiber Arts Collective, Silver City, New Mexico. Weaving for Justice participates in the Collective’s annual holiday sale each year in early October.  https://fiberartscollective.org/

Tucson Handweavers & Spinners Guild has generously provided grant support to Weaving for Justice over the years. Additionally, its members have donated textiles to our scholarship fundraisers.  https://thsg.org/

Weave a Real Peace (WARP) is an organization dedicated to exchanging information, mobilizing textile enthusiasts, raising awareness of the importance of textile traditions to grassroots economies, and creating conversations that result in action. In June 2017 WARP awarded scholarships to two weavers from Tsobol Antsetik to attend their annual meeting in Oaxaca, a life changing experience for the weavers. www.weavearealpeace.org